Mise en Scène (3 Photos)

 All photos © Abby Robinson.

Abby Robinson’s ongoing series, In Camera, is a look into the old photo studios throughout Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Vietnam “where the past, the present, the traditional and the contemporary collide and where painted backgrounds and props give clues into notions of class, taste and aspiration.” So many of these painted backdrops and props are being replaced by digital post-production techniques, but the details of Robinson’s colorful panoramas remind us of the culturally rich creative process of in-camera studio photography.

Stairs & Stones (Sri Lanka)

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18 Responses to “Mise en Scène (3 Photos)”

  1. Pamela Parlapiano Says:

    I love this insight into these photo studios ……How unique How similar How fabulous

    Good project Abby

  2. Andrew Coppa Says:

    Really nice.. The details like the pepsi ad are classic…

  3. Michael Raab Says:

    Very nice series, Abby. Amazing array of colors in each photo, especially the last one. Also, seeing all the Kodak promo is very interesting. I was just reading about what a ‘hit’ the company has taken in the last few years, mostly because the haven’t made the digital transition.

  4. Michael schmidt Says:

    Its nice to see these in panorama. It really shows the character of the old studios. Id love to see what a portait with one of these backdrops would look like. Interesting series

  5. Barry Goldstein Says:

    Beautiful (are we still allowed to say that ?) and complex images.

  6. Daniel Castelaz Says:

    These are brilliant images in terms of color, composition, and an agile sense of humor, but the way they blur the real and the performed is what sends me. Visually they echo the large paintings of James Rosenquist but they feel like Joseph Cornell in a party hat. I love the whole series!

  7. robert feldman Says:

    You always had an unerring eye. Bravo!

  8. Jaci Berkopec Says:

    Really cool Abby. Always good to know I have a professor who is a working, published photographer. Gives me hope! Bravo!

  9. Max Says:

    A great photographer and professor.

  10. stefen chow Says:

    A wonderful project and vision!

  11. Li Chang Says:

    ~WoW~ How nice ! Look into the old time, you always find something!

  12. Robert A. Schaefer Jr. Says:

    Wonderful to see this project again, Abby! It’s like pop art meets surrealism in Asia. Would love to see more. Brava!

  13. Jean Loh Says:

    Bravo Abby! I like the tranquility of these deserted interiors they retain some sort of an “impression” from all the ghosts who have posed here, sat on those chairs, smiled into the view camera. Would have been useful to add the age of these studios, like “first opened in the 1970′s?”…have they been converted into digital studio now? Thanks for sharing.

  14. Brisbane Wedding Photography Says:

    very nice photos. the details are simply magnificent. Hope to see more of these soon.

  15. Jan Says:

    Photography rediscovered, everything is there, colors, naivety, publicity, retro, in three pictures you feel in another world

  16. Signe Hamme Says:

    I love this series. The sensibility of the studio decor is like some eternal, slightly surreal 50′s of the soul. Far from Heaven meets Asia.

  17. frank young Says:

    I love this series.
    They are mysterious. I know what and where they were shot but this is not the mystery solved.
    Another world. Another level of awareness. The unknown the unknowable. They transport.
    Does MOMA know about these?

  18. Tony Sale Says:

    A wonderful sries of photo’s I think it’s fantastic how each part of each image fuses so well with th rest, also some fantastic colours.

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